THE HEAVEN OF MERCURY by Brad Watson

I can understand why Three Junes beat out this novel for the 2002 National Book Award, but I can’t understand why this book was a Finalist.  Except for a startling incident in a funeral parlor near the beginning and a twisty revelation near the end, nothing much happens.  The main character, Finus, has pined his entire life for Birdie, but she married Earl, a womanizer and very successful purveyor of shoes in coastal Mercury, Mississippi.  Finus marries Avis, who bears a son, but their marriage soon becomes an estrangement and a long-term separation.  The most lively and interesting character is Creasie, who begins work as Birdie’s maid at around age 12.  She comes from a shanty black community and relies on an old woman there for advice and potions when things go awry.  This novel follows all of these characters from the early 1900s until their deaths and/or old age.  Honestly, if I want to read a really good novel about small-town life, I’ll go with Kent Haruf.  As for the funeral parlor incident near the beginning, it is such a jaw-dropper that I expected more of the same.  No such luck.  The novel is pretty dull until the aforesaid twisty revelation near the end, in which a piece of dark mischief doesn’t result in any sort of consequences for the perpetrator.  I don’t expect an author necessarily to tie up all the loose ends, but I do expect some sort of acknowledgment that a crime was committed, even if perhaps we could consider it to be water under the bridge.  Maybe the author felt that any further explanation would be restating the obvious.  Certainly, in this case, the culprit had probably suffered enough.